Size 10 girl's shirt into size 2 girl's dress

Description

I am a beginner, so I often bite off more than I can chew.

This time, I think it came out OK!

Unfortunately, my phone (camera) died in the middle of the project, so I stopped documenting steps until the final outcome. Note that the shirt (before) is on an adult-sized hanger, while the dress (after) is on a kid’s hanger.

After removing the straps from the front only, and the sash, I measured and cut the shirt, front and back together, using the midline as my guidepoint. I used interfacing on the front side of the seam to strengthen it, since the back side was smocked. I pinned in the sash pieces that I trimmed down, Then I sewed the front and back together, doubling up on my diagonal stitch on the smocked area to finish the seams.

Once the two sides were sewn together, I folded the top of the front over to match the back side (the original blouse had a higher front than back), and made a strip of fabric to line the seam allowance and cover the strap ends, again using interfacing on the inside to strengthen the top of the dress. I pinned it up and sewed the straps onto the front, between the lining and the front of the dress, sewing close to the fold.

I hope that makes sense. I’m new to the lingo.

UPDATE: The model has awakened, and my straps are too close to the sides of the garment, once it’s on. Lucky for me, I left the whole length of the straps, for just this reason. I might make them more narrow, since I will likely have to remove them from both sides to get the right angle. Now if only my wily size-2x model wouldn’t run away every time we have to do a fitting. Sigh.

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